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Justice Quotes

By a wide margin the most quotes here are Shakespeare’s, and the two judges who follow him, Lord Mansfield and Lord Kenyon, are a sign that this page leans on the bench as much as the stage. Seneca and John Rawls fill out the top five.

Among the sourced entries, Bierce’s definition from 1911 describes justice as a commodity the State sells to citizens as a reward for their allegiance, taxes and personal service. Sartre’s Dirty Hands (1948) and Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) are here for what they say about guilt, not courts.

Three lines carry flags: Marlowe’s “the justice of my quarrel,” Augustine on charity and withheld justice, and a Martin Luther King Jr. line about peace and justice being goals for man.

Random quote on Justice

Most quoted on justice:

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.

Mahatma Gandhi

Want keeps pace with dignity. Destitute of the lawful means of supporting his rank, his dignity presents a motive for malversation, and his power furnishes the means.

Jeremy Bentham The Rationale of Reward (1811)

The great need in the world today is for for nations to so define their national interest that it makes for greater harmony, greater equality and justice and greater stability in the world.

Indira Gandhi

The first requisite of civilization, therefore, is that of justice—that is, the assurance that a law once made will not be broken in favour of an individual.

Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents (1929)

Justice is merely incidental to law and order [...] Law and order is what covers the whole picture.

J. Edgar Hoover

Most of authors seek fame, but I seek for justice — a holier impulse than ever entered into the ambitious struggles of the votaries of that fickle, flirting goddess.

Davy Crockett A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834)

Think of that, Joziré! A court dedicated to pure justice, one that can overrule the law! They didn’t even have one of those back on old Earth!

Sheri S. Tepper The Margarets (2007)

There is no such thing as abstract justice. There is such a thing as law. The difference should be apparent.

Peter S. Beagle A Fine and Private Place (1960)

The First Law of Journalism: to confirm existing prejudice, rather than contradict it.

Alexander Cockburn More magazine (1974)

They do not feel bound by the customary rules of conduct and have not yet found an inner law that would replace them.

Mirra Alfassa

Jurisprudence addresses the questions about law that an intelligent layperson of speculative bent — not a lawyer — might think particularly interesting.

Richard Posner The Problems of Jurisprudence (1990)

Building peace for tomorrow requires doing justice today.

Giovanni Lajolo

When the public interest is involved, finding out what actually happened is important; justice is an essential part of the social contract, and you can’t have justice until you know the truth.

Ted Chiang Exhalation: Stories (2019)

I have no need of proof. The laws of nature, unlike the laws of grammar, admit of no exception.

Dmitri Mendeleev

The entire military is loyal to the nation, loyal to the constitution and executes orders in accordance with the law. This must not be questioned.

Fang Mao-hung Fang Mao-hung (2021)

The Gardener says that mortals often pass laws they cannot enforce in order to be seen as “strong,” or “determined,” even though they know the laws will not solve the problem.

Sheri S. Tepper The Margarets (2007)

The usual judgments are judgments of interest and they tell us less about the nature of the person judged than about the interest of the one who judges.

Constantin Brunner

People quoted Henry Dorselblad’s indictment of modern society: “Women needed the law’s special protection when they were legally inferiors of men. Now they have equality and special protection. They can’t have both!”

William Tenn The Wooden Star (1968)

A thorough investigation into the origin of this dissemination will nevertheless be carried out and justice is the only party empowered to rule on such situations.

Nouria Benghabrit-Remaoun

There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife — a tyrannical midwife.

Stephen Spender

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